ATHENS, Tenn. — The Cleveland soccer team’s matchup against District 5-AAA rival McMinn County on Tuesday didn’t go as planned for coach John Brose.
Not that he minded.
The Blue Raiders opened a two-goal advantage by halftime and tacked three more goals on in the final 40 minutes to take a 5-0 District 5-AAA victory over the Cherokees at the McMinn County Soccer Complex.
Cleveland got two goals apiece from Daniel Jackson and Wes Llosa in recording its second consecutive win after five non-victories to start the season.
“We played well,” Brose said. “I’m proud of the guys. They’ve been working hard. It would have been easy to get down on ourselves early after losing a few, but we’ve responded well. We’re clicking and taking advantage of opportunities to score.”
The Raiders (2-4-1, 2-0) scored seven minutes into the game, when Jackson scored off a Garrett Koon assist on a corner kick. Koon got into the act at the five-minute mark of the first half when he took a pass from Ben Kimball and beat McMinn keeper Connar Roberts one-on-one to make it 2-0.
Jackson scored early in the second half on a corner kick that deflected off a McMinn defender and bounced into the goal, and then Llosa added the final two goals, the first off a free kick and the second off a pass from Adam Martin.
Brose was pleased with how his team scored off set pieces, as well as the play of the defense. It was the Raiders’ first shutout of the season.
“We’ve scored more off set pieces this year than in the past three seasons,” he said.
McMinn coach David McDonald was not pleased with how his team lost its composure after falling behind 3-0.
“It was a domino effect,” he said. “A couple of guys didn’t show heart and character. We didn’t have a good practice yesterday — we lacked intensity — and we deserved to get beat by a good team. I hope that we can see where we’re at as far as how we are when we don’t play as a team. We can play better and we know we’re a better team, but individually we’re not going to get anywhere.”
Said Brose: “I don’t think the score was indicative of how good they are. We often meet in the postseason, and if we meet this year, I expect it to be different.”